Addiction to a physical or emotional stimulus is an ever-increasing problem in today's society. Addictions are notoriously difficult for an individual to overcome, and may involve more than mere determination and will power on behalf of the individual wishing to change their behavior. Alternatively, many people have habits which they would like to break, but have difficulty doing so.
A number of pharmaceutical/psychological strategies are known which aid a person attempting to break an addiction. Examples include use of a nicotine supplement to help a smoker, use of methodone for heroin addicts, use of naloxone for alcoholics, and/or use of various therapies/support groups for those wishing to change a behavior. As evidenced by the high rate of failures and/or reversions to the addictions, however, all these therapies could be improved.
There is even less help available for people who wish to rid themselves of bad habits, which do not rise to the level of clinical addictions, but nonetheless are undesirable behaviors. For these people, pharmaceutical aids may not be warranted, either from a risk standpoint, a financial standpoint, or such aids may not even exist.
WO 2008/052995 (DSM) and Kloek et al 2011 AgroFOOD Industry Hi-Tech 22(1): 27-29 both describe a hydrolyzed lysozyme composition made from lysozyme found in hen's eggs. It contains at least 50%, and preferably at least 75% small peptides which have a molecular weight below 500 Da. This hydrolysate is also characterized in that the ratio of Tryptophan to Large Neutral Amino Acids (the sum of tyrosine, phenylalanine, leucine, isoleucine and valine), often designated the “Trp/LNAA ratio”, is at least 0.15, and preferably between 0.15 to 0.20 It was found that by eating this hydrolysate, a person's Trp/LNAA ratio in the blood serum can increase rapidly, and this can have a number of beneficial effects, including a positive influence on sleep quality, a positive effect on a person's mood, increase cognition (i.e. problem solving, learning, memory and language ability), alertness/vigilance, decreased anxiety, and increased libido. However, this is silent as to use as an agent which can help overcome addictions or to dehabituate.
WO2005/049012 (SHS International) discloses that a daily dose of 1-7 grams of tryptophan (14-100 mg/kg body weight) may be used to promote and/or maintain abstinence from additive substances, or from reward-mediated behaviors, and in particular alcohol. The tryptophan is in the form of either free tryptophan or tryptophan salts, and preferably avoids the provision of other LNAAs (large neutral amino acids, i.e. phenylalanine, tyrosine, valine, isoleucine, methionine and histidine). In preferred embodiments, the Trp is delivered with a carbohydrate.
It would be desirable to have a natural food supplement which can function by helping a person lessen or end an addiction or habituation, and which could be used at lower dosages that what has been used in the past, since pure tryptophan can have side effects like drowsiness.